1. Field of Invention
A metal trailer interlocking panel attached to a trailer frame used in the construction of an enclosed or paneled trailer, preferably in a horizontal and stacked orientation, includes an upper groove assembly and a conforming and interlocking lower groove assembly, an inner surface welded to a vertical trailer frame member and an outer surface having a lower slot member and an upper slot member forming a sliding channel within which is slid a horizontal outer panel insert riveted to the panel. In the event the panel insert is damaged by hail, road debris, branches or other accidental means, or a simple change in aesthetics or display medium is desired, the panel insert may be exchanged without requiring replacement ofthe panel. The panel insert may also have an ornamental design or graphic applied to an outer surface, which enables the trailer owner to apply a variety of panel inserts and exchange graphics without having to repaint the entire trailer, and also to allow for change of information which may be applied to the panel inserts for advertising or other textual information.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to trailer panels or other metallic structure panels.
The first series of prior art patents includes other horizontally oriented trailer panels that have a type of interlocking means on upper and lower margins. Those patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,224,142 to McCormack, 5,613,726 to Hobbs, 5,052,741 to Brown, 3,110,371 to Ridder, D410,868 to Hall, Jr. and D430,069 to Collie, Jr. All these panels disclose a metal panel with edges that are interlocking when stacked and prior to attachment to an underlying trailer frame. Opposing upper and lower margins include molded and formed edges which connect to form a linear seal. However, none of them contain an upper or lower margin similar to the present panel, nor do they present an outer surface adapted to receive horizontal slide panels which are riveted to the outer surface.
A second series of prior art patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,652,018 to Buchholz and 5,526,622 to Augustine, disclose assemblies where vertically oriented frame members retain trailer panels in vertical orientation, with the connected series of frame members and panels comprising side walls of a trailer, the side panels sliding within grooves in the vertical frame members.
A third series of prior art patents disclose various other metal wall panels which having interlocking margins, with U.S. Pat. No 1,913,342 to Schaffert, which discloses interlocking roof panels which would support a roof structure without deformation, the interlocking side margins strengthening the interlocking panels, U.S. Pat. No. D216,480, which discloses a wall panel including a corner assembly, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,407 to Marryatt, which is an interlocking grid assembly for catwalks on ships, sidewalk coverings for street openings and other openings requiring a sturdy and self supporting grid material with interlocking side margins.